December 11, 2005
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I did a number on Xmas.
Last year, I turned svwX upside down and backwards for twelve days. That’s the number I did on Xmas: number 12.
I don’t intend to repost every episode, but for the entertainment of my
new readers and to keep up the holiday tradition I started last year, I
intend to do the same number on Xmas again this year. I will
probably post teasers each day and links to the originals, except for
maybe one or two or a few on which I do some substantial rewriting
and/or add new pictures, which I may repost as I have done for the one
below.I don’t recall who it was, but in the past week or so, I read one
Xangan’s blog who made some scathing remarks about inflatable lawn
ornaments. That reminded me of this, a little pre-Xmas-number
teaser essay on lawn “art,” that asked the question:
Vandalism…
or art criticism?
It’s
a holiday tradition at the Loranger house in South Anchorage: A
handcrafted, winter wonderland scene takes over the yard, snaking
around the house, the car port and the Quonset hut in the driveway. And
every year, vandals slink by late at night and trash it.Hoodlums struck again late Saturday night, according to Rob and Dawn
Loranger. They walked on the front lawn and slashed off the heads of
Santa and Mrs. Claus, dolls that sat inside a miniature RV made to look
like the family’s real mobile home in the carport.The thieves also stole a movie projector that flashes Christmas images
on the garage door and made off with the key component of the nativity
scene.“They cut the wire on the Baby Jesus,” said Dawn Loranger, whose
husband, Rob, makes many of the family’s Christmas displays by hand.After cutting Baby Jesus out of the manger, the thugs fled down a
nearby bike path, flinging the kidnapped infant and the headless
Clauses to the ground, said Dawn, who discovered the destruction when
she awoke Sunday morning.
“I cried all the way to church,” she said.Anchorage Daily NewsGreyfox phoned this morning, spending a few of his precious daytime
cell minutes to alert me to this story in the Alaska section of
today’s paper. His diagnosis was NPD, confirmed for him when he
read the part about the display’s including a model of the family’s
motorhome.I reserved judgement until I’d read the article.
Now that I’ve seen it, I concur: narcissism run amok, and tacky
to the max as well. This guy’s neighbors must hate to see the
holiday season roll around.The bit that worries me most is that someone may end up getting a
criminal record, paying a fine and maybe even doing jail time for
showing these tasteless yahoos what they think of their display.I’m planning a little Yuletide “display” of my own here on my Xanga
site: something for each of the eleven days until Xmas, and the day of Christ’s Mass itself, with perhaps
somewhere in there a repost of my Saturnalia blog from 2003.Thank God that dear Jesus knows I love him, because during the course
of the next couple of weeks some of my readers may have their
doubts.To set the record straight here at the start, I have no respect
whatsoever for the mythology that has grown up surrounding the
planetary incarnation of the Christos. Also, I do not worship
that man, nor the Roman torture device upon
which his incarnation ended. My reverence is reserved for his
divine
parent, as the Master taught.I have a hard time finding any respect for the intelligence of those
who swallow the myth without question and ignore the historical record
that shoots it full of holes.Perhaps it is well that the early promoters of the cult (AKA the Church
Fathers) borrowed elements of many existing religions of the time, to
make their new cult more attractive and acceptable. At least they
sparked up the chill of northern winters and added some color and
pageantry to what might otherwise have been a lackluster holiday
falling between the Fourth of July and Labor Day. Merry
motherfuckin’ Xmas, y’all!
Originally posted December 13, 2004.
Comments (12)
I think that the destruction is a shame!
Looking forward to your upcoming blogs.
‘and save us all from Satan’s power’ – Good King Wenceslas
I’ll have to beg to differ and agree to disagree on this one.
Those people, whatever their idiosyncrasies, do not deserve to have their belongings vandalized…. and any idiot stick, regardless of how they might feel about the tackiness (or however the hell you spell it) of the display still have no right to encroach upon their property to make their statement.
I don’t buy into it either…as my kids’ xmas concerts blog will detail shortly, however, I’ve had too much of neighbours deciding that I’m a piece of shit because I don’t follow the party line. Is it the Feng Shui Bagua above my door? Arseholes.
We’re all entitled to our own opinons, of course.
Meh. Ruffle feathers as you will, my dear Kathy.
Odd…it’s not the religious aspect of the holiday that made as big of an impression on me as I was growing up, but rather the time spent with family, and memories of that time, that have stayed with me.
Oh, and I forgot to mention–they have a projection TV, too. Now that I mention it, I’m not sure how relevant that is, but it seemed to make sense when I read the article. I bet they spend a LOT of time watching their home-made videos of their Hawaiian vacations.
Just thought–maybe the vandals were other local NPD cases–”How DARE they put up that shit in MY neighborhood!” Woo hoo, battling NPD–and you don’t even have to go to a meeting to see it.
PS–how ’bout a plug for my Job rant? I got nothing but positive comments–I wanna offend SOMEONE!
I love any news story that contains the line, “They cut the wire on baby Jesus.”
That’s the thing about Christmas: You can’t tell your neighbor that you fucking hate their display, other than “I fucking hate your display.” There’s no way to beat around the bush.
thank you – since i’ve not read this last years……
An interesting question…worthy of thought. Personally, I hate vandalism, but the ability to criticize in a free society, is a basic human right. When that right to free speech is demostrated in a violent, or destructive manner, it becomes injurious to all involved. Obviously, injuring the people it is done to, but not so obvious is the injury to the people performing the destruction. The destructive person is not acting with love. I think actions performed with hate hurt the soul of the destructor. But, Spirit may be using this event to teach. At any rate, kudos to Kathy for asking the question and making us all think. :wave:
Well, it’s your opinion and your blog. Christmas has indeed become farcical in some respects but the fact remains it is the celebration of Jesus birth, wrong date, garishness and commercialism notwithstanding. To many it is a precious time. I have often been puzzled by Pagan piss-taking of aspects of Christianity and wonder why this is necessary….is it a reaction to being told Paganism is of the devil and evil? I suppose that isn’t pleasant either. I wondered if you clebrate Yule? I found this when I looked for info…
Yule is the time of greatest darkness and the longest night of the year. The Winter Solstice had been associated with the birth of a “Divine King” long before the rise of Christianity. Since the Sun is considered to represent the Male Divinity in many Pagan Traditions, this time is celebrated as the “return of the Sun God” where He is reborn of the Goddess
I’m in trepidation about reading what you plan for the coming days, I appreciate your writing anyway so I probably will! Respect.
(I think it was vandalism too btw, not art criticism.)
Oh I love, love, love, love it. I tried to comment on the above blog, but the server wouldn’t let me for some reason. Anyhow, yes I do enjoy my shopping and decorating and such. Shit I live for … WOW! BOTH! That is what I seem to be doing with a lot of my time, shopping and decorating. Sometimes I’m a little invasive about it, but hey nobody’s stopping me. And I think you’re pretty dead on about the divine spirit. At least that’s how I feel it in my heart. Ha, ha… modern christianity is like milk. You can even get your gallon of two percent holy spirit, (98% BS) on almost any shelf. (Metaphor here.) I think people tend to forget the simple truths and overcomplicate the rest. And as far as this blog… well it sure is nifty!
take care.
Ho, HO, HO.
OMG is it back to this time already?!!? I can’t believe that it’s already xmas time again. I remember this post last year and my response to it. Although I felt more emotional about it this time last year due to problems I was having with my own neighbours, which included throwing their garbage into my yard (and for the record I do not have a xmas display, tacky or otherwise) the story doesn’t elicit the same emotion this time ’round. If I were this family I think I’d have given up by now. Either way, I still don’t think that trashing their stuff is the way to go.